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Lawmakers in New Hampshire are being asked to vote in favor of a bill extending health insurance coverage to spouses subject to lose theirs after divorce.

Men and women both showed up at a House Commerce Committee hearing to testify in support of the proposed legislation. One woman, a music teacher and mother of four, said she stands to lose her insurance after her divorce becomes final.

“While I wait to see if this will happen, I stand vulnerable and alone in a system that has offered no allies,” she said before the committee.

Some men also face loss of insurance coverage after divorce.

“This bill is not gender-specific. Both men and women are caught in rising problems with health-care access,” said a New Hampshire resident who was forced to drop insurance for himself and his daughter because of the high cost of coverage under COBRA.

Opponents of the bill argue that the burden of coverage then falls unfairly on employers. However, Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, the bill's sponsor, said the burden falls on the taxpayers if ex-spouses are forced to go without healthcare coverage.

“It's the right thing to do for health care, the right thing to do for the uninsured and the right thing to do for our state,” Clark said.

If passed, the bill would allow divorced spouses to remain covered indefinitely under their ex-spouse's insurance. The coverage would stop only if they remarried.

(Source: The Citizen of Laconia)

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